peteski

Nice visual comparison of scales (using the same type of model), but limited, as there are many other modeling scales out there.

This is one of those perpetually asked questions, It has been covered less than a month ago. Instead of repeating the answers, here is the most recent thread:

Spraying Testors Dullcote lacquer (or a water-based acrylic flat clear) should work. But I prefer to dull the surface by using abrasives. I have used a sandblasting gun to really dull the vinyl tire surface. You could also use some abrasive household cleaners and rub the the tire with some cleaner on a moist cloth. You live in Netherlands, so you probably have different brands of abrasive cleaners than what I have in USA.

Surfaces used for paint compatibility testing: Yes, plastic spoons can be made from various plastic resins (yes all plastics are resins). With the recycling push all over the world, you can easily tell what you are buying. Look for the recycling symbol on the spoon packaging. #6 is Polystyrene (which is as close to the kit's plastic as possible). If it is not #6, don't buy it. Bottles are usually soft plastic (soft drinks, medicine, etc). Again, they should all have the recycling symbol. They will likely not be polystyrene, but are still useful for testing paint combinations to see what the finish will look like. Soft drinks bottles are usually PET (#1 or 2), and medicine bottles are Polyropylene (#5). Recycling symbol is your friend!

Candy paint implies that it is translucent, to show the base coat it will be applied over. Usually the base coat is some sort of metallic paint to result in a deep metallic color. Candy red over plain white will likely result in non metallic red color. If non-metallic is your goal, then just use plain opaque pink paint. To get candy pink you would likely need to start with translucent candy pink color over metallic base.

I think we are getting mixed up here. 1/X and 2:X represent scale. It can also be represented by a ratio, but if the 1:25 scale was to be represented by ratio, it would be 25:1 (as in 25 units of measure of a model represent 1 unit of the life-size object).

Sure, I'm well aware of this - I've been participating in this thread after all. Chrome used to work and now it is broken (along with other browsers using the same browser core). The procedure seems like it backs out the update, so it might back out the broken code, restoring previous functionality.

Back on October 27th was a statement from the admins: If this is a problem with the browser, not with this website, there will likely not be many updates from the admins here. UPDATE: While I don't use Chrome, on another forum someone was unhappy with the new Chrome's line spacing in the history tab. He found the following procedure which appears to have backed up the update. If you like the new user interface, try to just disable the first item. Maybe that will take care of the problem with this forum. Open chrome://flags Search for “refresh” Disable the 2 results : (“Chrome Refresh 2023” and “Chrome WebUI Refresh 2023”) Chrome will ask you to reload the browser and that’s it! Done Source: https://bugartisan.medium.com/disable-the-new-chrome-ui-round-in-2023-db168271f71e

Clean the lid seal and the bottle's lip ever time. You paints will last long (as none will be wasted) and they will be easy to open.

Ah, and I was going to write "it's all Greek to me". Yeah, I know Greek alphabet looks different - it just a joke, just like Ace's post.

Bill, what language is that thing on the rigth, and what does it mean? Seems like something went wrong with copy/paste maybe.

While likely not totally complete, this page is very helpful in listing what scales are used for what models. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scale_model_sizes As for the usage of both "/" and ":", the slash is likely used to indicate division (as the dimensions of the full scale object divided by the scale number). I think that is the original use and the colon became used later. Or maybe slash was used in British and American regions, while colon was used in Europe.

Yes, except for white and metallics, gel pen inks are usually translucent (depending on white background to show their proper color). They work like the inks in color ink jet printers. If applied to dark surfaces, the colors will not render properly. Adding a white "base coat" will allow those other colors to show up correctly. Just like printing decals on Alps printers: they can print white ink undercoat before printing the translucent color inks, so the decal's colors will appear correctly, even applied to dark surfaces. On the other hand, paint markers usually contain opaque paint which can be applied d over dark surfaces, But those don't usually have tips fine enough for thin stripes needed here. The other problem is that they usually contain enamel paints which are not compatible with vinyl tire material (the enamels never fully dry on vinyl).

Well Kevin, you have answered your own question. You just proved how unpredictable mixing various brands of paint (including primer) can be. As you noted, in this case the brand of primer seems to make difference. Maybe the solvent from Tamiya paint penetrated the Testors paint and affected the primer. I don't have a specific answer as to the reason for the wrinkled paint, but I know mixing paints often causes problems (as you are proving here), and testing the paint combinations on a spoon is the best course of action. Well, except that the kit's plastic itself can also be the part of the safe painting equation. Safest option (that I usually go with) is to minimize the number of coats on the model. Whenever I can, I use model (plastic compatible) paints and no primer. But we all have different painting techniques, and some are riskier than others.

Its been going on for a long time. Yes, is called "shrinkflation". Slightly smaller cans of tuna fish, or domed bottoms on peanut butter jars (to reduce the amount in a jar which otherwise looks to be the same size, but it is lighter) are some more examples.

I would think that gas-powered blowers are noisier (and stinkier) than electric ones. Get your your leaf rake!

Is it possible that the "dust" was actually some small debris in the paint?

Maybe so, but to me it is not worth it. Plus, I have enough kits and supplies squirreled away that it could last me 2 lifetimes (while I'm on a downhill slope age-wise already) . I'm good - thanks! The candy store is my stash.

To go a bit further, modelers came up with the rules that enamels are safe over lacquer (but not reverse), lacquer is safe over lacquer, and water-based acrylics are safe over everything. But in real life, that often doesn't work. There are just too many variables in play. Things like what solvents are used, what type of resin is used as paint's binder, and similar things. Even if someone compiled a huge list of what brands/types of paints are compatible with what, not only that list would be quite large, manufacturers sometimes change chemical formulas for their paints, so the list would not be accurate. Plus as you mentioned drying time can also affect the paint's behavior. In your case, are you sure that the bottom coat is really a lacquer (the description on the label can be inaccurate)? Or it could be that the solvent in the top coat is hotter (or chemically incompatible) with the bottom (lacquer) coat, causing it to expand and wrinkle. Like I mentioned, thank goodness for spoon testing.

Stating the obvious, it looks like the paints are incompatible. Mixing paint brands and types is is always risky. But luckily for you, you did the spoon test before committing to a model.

Thank you for that very useful info. I feel enlightened. And as you see, they do have an email address after all.

Very cool and unusual model. I have some diecast gas pump models in 1:43 scale, not as well detailed of course. I recall the R&D Unique name but I had no idea the made those pump kits.

As usual, superb job François! The wheel assembly jig is very clever. I also like to mention that in English the joining technique you used on the brass parts of the accelerator pedal is called soldering (soudure), not welding (soudage). Welding actually melts the metal bring joined. Soldering uses a lower temperature metal (solder) to join the parts together. That is a distinct difference. Looks like in French those 2 words are very similar.

Nice! I don't know exactly what it is about this car but I also love it. It just looks good! One of my all time favorite designs. The orange color is so '70s. My favorite are either white or light metallic blue.

That sounds like a fun project. Back in the '80s I owned a '76 Camaro.. I put Centerlines on it.